Mine-car wheel.



PATEN'I'ED MAY 5, 1903.

E. E. MQGONNELL. MINE OAR WHEEL. APPLIUATION FILED AUG. 20, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

FIG. I.

v WITNEQ SESI UNITED STATES Patented May 5, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD E.MOCONNELL, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF TVVO-THIRDSTO SIMON D. LAUFFER AND JAMES K. GALLAGHER, OF

IRWIN, PENNSYLVANIA.

MINE-CAR WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming partof were Patent No. 727.183, dated. m 5, 190?Application filed August 20, 1 902.

To atZZ whmn it may concern: I

Be it known that LEDWARD E. MOCONNELL, a citizen of the UnitedStates,residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inMine-Oar l/Vheels, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The wheels of mine-cars rotate on journals, formed on the car-axlesrather than with the" axles, as is usual in railway and other cars. Thewheels must thereforebe formed with journal-bearings, and the surfacesof these hearings should be sufticiently hard to withstand the excessivewear to which they are subjected. Also in this class of cars straight orcylindrical journals have become standard as contradistinguished fromtapering journals or spindles common in carriages, wagons, &c., forwhich several reasons may be as signed, principal among them being theexpense incident to turning up tapered journals and the tendency of thelubricant to work to and waste from the outer smaller endsthereof. Thewheels are of ordinary cast-iron, being cast in sand with a suitablesand core to form the journal bearing or box, which is subsequentlybored out and trued. This is the present usual method. Wheels are thusproduced having ordinary cast-iron bearings which wear very rapidly onthe wrought-iron axle-journals. This condition prevails notwithstandingits disadvantages, as no means has been known heretofore for casting thewheels with cylindrical chilled or hardened bearing surfaces. Acylindrical metallic chilling-core of usual form expands under the heatof the cast, and this expansion, together with the contraction of themetal cast, so fixes the core within the wheel that its removal ispractically impossible, and even when removable the surface of the chillis so cut and roughened by the operation that thereafter it ispractically useless. Hence, so far as I am aware, no cast-iron wheelsare now made with cylindrical chilled bearings,

The present invention is directed to providing a mine-car wheel having ahardened or chilled cylindrical journal-bearing.

Serial No. 120,375. on model) The invent-ion is further directed to themanufacture of a wheel having chilled tread and journal-bearing withintervening straight spokes, all aswill be fully described hereinafterand claimed. 1

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional view of a mold orflask, showing the cast wheel and chills in position therein, the Wheelbeing sectioned on line 1 1 of Fig. 3. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of thewheel after being removed from the mold, the bearingforming core beingshown in position in the wheel in full lines, as when the wheel and coreare removed from the mold, and in dotted lines after being removed fromthe wheel. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the wheel.

Referring to the drawings, 2 designates a two-part mold or flask ofusual or any preferred construction, and 3 the molding-sand. It isunnecessary to here describe the method of preparing the mold for thecast, manipulation of the pattern,'&c., these steps being familiar tothose skilled in the art.

4 represents an annular chill within the mold, against which Wheel-tread5 and flange 6 are cast. This being a chilled or hardened chill and notsubject to expansion and contraction, an absolutely true wheel isassured. Tread-chills heretofore used have been of ordinary unchilledmetal subject to expansion and contraction, which are liable to break,

spoiling the casts and not infrequently producing wheels not absolutelytrue.

The journal hearing or eye 7 within hub S is formed by a cylindricalhardened or chilled core 9, and not being subject to expansion andcontraction it always retains the exact size, being unaffected by thehotmetal cast therearound, and hence capable of ready removal, as willbe presently explained.

Opposite ends 10 and 11 of the hub are exposed to excessive wear, end 10against the wheel-confining pin or other fastening at the outer end ofthe journal and extremity 11 against the rear end of the journal. Toresist this wear, I provide for chilling said faces by employing twohardened chilling rings or surfaces 12 and 13, which are suitably placedin the sand, preferably embracing core 9, and against which the endfaces of the hub are cast. Under the old methods of manufacture it hasnot been practicable to chill these faces, as they would then be toohard to be penetrated by the tool used for boring out the hub, abovereferred to. As soon after the cast as the metal has set, preferablywhen the same has cooled to a cherry-red, the wheel is removed from themold and tread-chill, carrying with it the cylindrical chilled core 9.Said core is then removed from the wheel, preferably by application ofpressure at one end, it being desirable to avoid striking the same,asthe chilled core is very brittle. The core having undergone no expansionis thus readily removable and is not injured in the slightest either bythe casting or. removing operations. The core leaves the bearing smoothand bright and ready for use. It is immaterial when rings 12 and 13 areremoved. Ring 12 may remain in the sand after the wheel and chill 9 havebeen taken out, or it may stick to the core and be carried outtherewith. Ring 13 may be lifted off before the wheel is taken out orafterward, as preferred.

The chilled chills herein shown and described are formed of ordinarycast-iron with chilled or hardened faces or surfaces which may besecured either by casting the chills against suitable chilling-surfacesor by form ing the same in metal molds. Their cost is trifling ascompared with the cost of steel and other chills now in general use, andtheir surfaces are neither worn nor injured by the casting operation orby parting or separating the chills and casts. I believe myself to bethe first to propose the use of a chilled chill or a chill incapable ofeither expansion or contraction, and I also believe myself to be thefirst to propose a mine-car wheel with a cylindrical chilledjournal-bearing, as prior to myinvention no successful meanshas beenknown for making them.

It is further characteristic of the invention that by simultaneouslychilling the journalbearing and tread, as above described, it ispossible to produce a wheel with straight radial spokes 14, which aremuch stronger than the curved spokes heretofore formed in wheels havingchilled treads and unchilled journal-bearings. In an ordinary cast-ironwheel withouta chilled tread it is possible to produce straightspokes,and such wheels are, in fact, made in considerable numbers; but when thetread is chilled without chilling the bearing or eye, as is now usual,the chilled treads become rigid before contraction of the unchilled hubis complete, making curved spokes necessary to compensate for thecontraction, as straight spokes would snap or break under the excessivetension. By chilling both the tread and bearing the contraction of saidparts is effected practically simultaneously, relieving the spokes ofstress incident thereto. v

While the invention has been here shown and described in connection withmine-car wheels, other articles may be similarly formed withoutdeparting from the invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A wheel having a cast-metal hub formed with a chilled journal-bearingof uniform diameter throughout its length.

. 2. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical chilledjournal-bearing, substantially as described. 7 w

3. Acast-iron mine-car wheel havingchilled hub extremities,substantially as described.

7 4C. Acast-ir'on mine-car wheelhavingchilled journal-bearin and chilledhub extremities, substantially as described.

5. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical journal-bearing andchilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

6. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical chilledjournal-bearing and chilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

7. A mine-car wheel having its hub, spokes and tread formed or castintegral, the hub being formed with a journal-bearing having itsbearing-face relatively harder than the metal of the spokes,substantially as described.

S. A mine-car wheel formed in a single casting and having a chilled orhardened. tread and a chilled or hardened journal-bearing, and straightspokes, substantially as described.

9. A cast-iron wheel formed in a single casting and having a chilledjournal-bearing of uniform diameter throughout its length.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

- EDWARD E. MOCONNELL. Witnesses:

W. F. SHROYER,

H. W. MOKALIP.

